#MyDisneyLife

Meeting Mickey Mouse at Disney World in Florida

I have always been a dreamer and a believer in fantastical things, amazing adventures through magical lands on horseback encountering trolls and dragons and good always defeating evil in the end. I was one of those kids who easily got lost in the world of make believe, my imagination often ran wild and I would happily re-enact these adventures in my bedroom for hours on end. As you can imagine growing up I was a huge fan of Disney films and books as they had everything I could want in a story and seeing them come to life in such a vivid away on screen instantly captured my attention.

Growing up in South Africa we had limited access to the most recent collections and anything that came out in the cinema in places like the UK and US would only make it to our screens around a year later so when we came to visit family in Wales we would stock up on a few classics and then I would spend the next two years watching them over and over again on the weekends and after school. Its hard to pin point a favourite although I think I watched Sword in the Stone the most and it actually influenced the naming of our eldest son. I loved the legend and folk-law of it and being small in stature myself it also had a strong message of not judging a book by it's cover and that no matter how small or weak you may appear within you can be great strength. Other favourites at the time were Dumbo, The Jungle book and Peter Pan. My love for Disney didn't stop when I went into double digits at the age of 10, I remember still being enthralled throughout my teens with classics such as Aladdin, Hercules, The Lion King and Mulan.

My son loves Disney and dressing up as some of his favourite characters

At the real hight of my childhood love for Disney, when most of my storybooks and toys resembled characters from the films, came that magical moment when your parents sit you down at the kitchen table, just before supper and quietly whisper that in a few weeks time we would be boarding a plane and flying to America to meet the big Mouse himself at Disney World in Florida. I was 9yrs old at the time, with an autograph book in hand on a mission to meet all my childhood heroes while wearing a Daffy Duck hat non-stop for what was one of the most memorable weeks of my life. Its one of those once in a lifetime experiences that I will never forget and it;s equally exciting that we are starting to talk about plans to take our sons to Disneyland Paris in the next two years once the baby is old enough to enjoy it as well.

The amazing thing about Disney is its continuous development of kids films, it moves with the times without losing the magic and continues to capture the imaginations in the same way today as it did with its first feature film in 1937. We keep screen time pretty low in our house but we have a family tradition of doing a movie night on Saturday evenings and its wonderful to watch our sons eyes light up at recent films such as Cars, Planes and Rataouille and even as adults it never seems like a chore to watch a Disney film as they nail it on the head when it comes to family viewing.  

What is amazing today though is unlike when I was a child and had to wait for what seemed forever to see the most recent Disney productions, now you can pretty much how the whole catalog and much more at your fingers with DisneyLife - the ultimate Disney App which has the biggest collection of films, box sets, books, music and apps and will sure to be a massive hit with families of all ages.

Do you have a favourite Disney film or memory? Why not share it on social media using #MyDisneyLife

I was asked by Disney Life to share my Disney memory